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'Submitted URL Marked Noindex': What It Means & How to Fix
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“Submitted URL marked noindex” means you told Google to index a page (by putting it in your sitemap) that also tells Google not to index it (via a noindex tag) — two contradictory instructions. Google resolves the conflict by obeying the noindex and flagging the contradiction. The fix is simple once you decide what you actually want: if the page should rank, remove the noindex; if it shouldn’t, remove it from your sitemap.
Why this error is a contradiction
Two signals are fighting:
- Your sitemap says “index this.” Submitting a URL in your XML sitemap is a request for Google to crawl and index it.
- The page says “don’t index this.” A
noindexdirective — a meta tag or an HTTP header — tells Google to keep the page out of search results.
Google can’t do both, so it follows the noindex (the stronger, page-level instruction) and reports “Submitted URL marked noindex” to tell you your two signals disagree. It’s not a penalty — it’s a heads-up to pick one.
Where the noindex is hiding
The noindex lives in one of two places, and finding it is the whole job:
- A meta robots tag in the page’s HTML
<head>:<meta name="robots" content="noindex">. View source and search for “noindex.” - An HTTP header:
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, sent by the server. This one is sneaky because it’s invisible in the HTML — check your response headers, or use the URL Inspection tool, which shows what Google sees.
Common culprits that add noindex without you realizing:
- An SEO plugin set to noindex a category, tag, archive, or specific page.
- A staging/dev setting left on after launch (whole-site noindex is a classic post-launch disaster).
- CMS defaults noindexing certain page types.
- Password-protected or members-only pages, which are often noindexed by design.
How to fix “Submitted URL marked noindex”
Decide what the page is for, then act:
If you WANT the page indexed
- Find and remove the noindex. Delete the
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">from the<head>, or remove theX-Robots-Tag: noindexHTTP header (often in your server config or an SEO plugin setting). - Confirm with URL Inspection that Google no longer sees a noindex.
- Request indexing in Search Console to speed up the recrawl, then Validate Fix.
If you do NOT want the page indexed
- Keep the noindex — it’s doing its job.
- Remove the URL from your sitemap, since the sitemap should only list pages you want indexed. That resolves the contradiction and clears the warning.
- Optionally regenerate your sitemap so it excludes noindexed pages automatically going forward.
The error clears once your two signals agree — index + in-sitemap, or noindex + out-of-sitemap.
One thing NOT to do
Don’t “fix” this by adding a robots.txt disallow on top. If you block the page in robots.txt, Google can’t crawl it to see the noindex — and you can end up with the opposite, stubborn problem: Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt. Noindex and disallow do different jobs; the difference is worth understanding in noindex vs robots.txt disallow.
The bottom line
“Submitted URL marked noindex” is just two contradictory instructions — your sitemap says index, your page says don’t. There’s no mystery: find the noindex (meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header), then either remove it (to index the page) or drop the URL from your sitemap (to keep it out). Make the two signals agree and the warning disappears.
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Frequently asked questions
What does "Submitted URL marked noindex" mean?
It means a URL in your XML sitemap (a request to index it) also carries a noindex directive (a request not to index it). Google obeys the noindex and flags the contradiction so you can resolve which instruction you actually want.
How do I fix "Submitted URL marked noindex"?
If you want the page indexed, find and remove the noindex — either the meta robots tag in the HTML head or the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header — then request indexing. If you do not want it indexed, keep the noindex and remove the URL from your sitemap so your signals agree.
Where is the noindex tag coming from?
From a meta tag in the page head (<meta name="robots" content="noindex">) or an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header. Common sources include an SEO plugin noindexing a page type, a staging/dev noindex left on after launch, or CMS defaults. The URL Inspection tool shows exactly what Google sees.
Should I block the noindexed page in robots.txt too?
No. Blocking it in robots.txt stops Google from crawling the page, so it can never see the noindex — which can leave the URL stuck as "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt." Keep the page crawlable and control indexing with the noindex tag or the sitemap instead.